Ballardian

Photo: Simon Sellars (apologies for the crappy gif animation; bet you thought you’d never see the like outside myspace).

Here’s an intriguing article by Bill Christensen at Technovelgy about the next generation of animated billboards. The piece ends with Ballard’s short story, ‘The Subliminal Man’, and an even more intriguing next-next-gen proposition.

Digital billboards are starting to sprout along highways near you. These enormous, wide-screen displays provide an extremely attractive way to grab the attention of customers who are (momentarily) offline, while still maintaining a connection to the digital world.
…
There is just one additional technology yet to be employed. In 1963, science fiction writer J.G. Ballard wrote a great short story, The Subliminal Man, that predicted the use of enormous electronic signs to convince you to BUY NOW”

(Bill Christensen, ‘Digital Billboards Worth Billions’; 2007).”

Then the flicker of lights cleared and steadied, blazing out continuously, and together the crowd looked up at the decks of brilliant letters. The phrases, and every combination of them possible, were entirely familiar, and Franklin knew that he had been reading them for weeks as he passed up and down the expressway.

BUY NOW BUY NOW BUY NOW BUY NOW BUY
NEW CAR NOW NEW CAR NOW NEW CAR NOW
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES”

(J.G. Ballard, ‘The Subliminal Man’; 1963)